Ashley Juddhas been making the press rounds promoting her new ABC show Missing-- and in turn, the media sphere went bananas discussing her supposed "puffy face," which many alleged to be caused by plastic surgery.

Oftentimes, celebrities will fire back at this kind of media scrutiny over being too fat, too thin, too old, too much work done, etc. etc with a frustrated tweet or angry sound bite. But Judd took it a step further, and wrote insightful, provocative essay for The Daily Beast on how she, starlets and womankind are unfairly put under the microscope. We have a newfound respect for Judd after reading through her essay.

I am happy to say that Hollywire did not participate in the frenzy of plastic surgery commentary surrounding Ashley's "puffy face." My gag reflex is triggered by articles and TV segments that interview plastic surgeons to speculate on what kind of work a woman has had done. In the beginning of the article, Ashley set the record straight that she had been sick for a month and was on steroids to help her recover -- which sometimes causes bloat in the face. She also said that she's gained a bit of weight, so naturally her face would be a bit fuller.

Once she got past the explanation for this ridiculous scrutiny, she then went into her real point of the article. She said, "The assault on our body image, the hypersexualization of girls and women and subsequent degradation of our sexuality as we walk through the decades, and the general incessant objectification is what this conversation allegedly about my face is really about."

She went on to say, "That women are joining in the ongoing disassembling of my appearance is salient. Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate."

And then wrote quite insightfully, "It doesn’t actually matter if we are aging naturally, or resorting to surgical assistance. We experience brutal criticism. The dialogue is constructed so that our bodies are a source of speculation, ridicule, and invalidation, as if they belong to others—and in my case, to the actual public." I would definitely recommend reading the full article.

It's such a horrible Catch 22 for women -- a woman is berated if she's overweight, but if a she loses too mcuh, she's anorexic. She's insulted and scrutinized if she shows signs of aging, but if a she looks younger than her years, she's desperately addicted to plastic surgery. I'm happy that Ms. Judd had the strength in conviction to write this article.